Soil respiration (the flux of CO2 from the soil surface) is one of the largest and most variable fluxes in the global carbon cycle, and yet also one of the least understood, primarily due to methodological difficulties. These are (1) measuring soil respiration at high temporal frequencies and (2) at

Phenological advancements driven by climate change are especially pronounced at higher latitudes, so that migrants from lower latitudes may increasingly arrive at breeding grounds after the appearance of seasonal resources. To explore this possibility, we compared dates of first arrival of Broad-tai

Simultaneous or sequential attack by herbivores and microbes is common in plants. Many seed plants exhibit a defence trade-off against chewing herbivorous insects and leaf-colonizing ( phyllosphere ) bacteria, which arises from cross-talk between the phytohormones jasmonic acid (JA, induced by many

Many plants that bear hidden or recessed floral nectar experience nectar robbing, the removal of nectar by a floral visitor through holes pierced in the corolla. Although robbing can reduce plant reproductive success, many studies fail to find such effects. We outline three mechanistic hypotheses th

Plant distributions can be limited by habitat-biased herbivory, but the proximate causes of such biases are rarely known. Distinguishing plant-centric from herbivore-centric mechanisms driving differential herbivory between habitats is difficult without experimental manipulation of both plants and h

Leaf energy balance may influence plant performance and community composition. While biophysical theory can link leaf energy balance to many traits and environment variables, predicting leaf temperature and key driver traits with incomplete parameterizations remains challenging. Predicting thermal o

Premise of the Study – Flowering time may influence pollination success and seed set through a variety of mechanisms, including seasonal changes in total pollinator visitation or the composition and effectiveness of pollinator visitors. Methods – We investigated mechanisms by which changes in flower

Climate change is shifting the environmental cues that determine the phenology of interacting species. Plant-pollinator systems may be susceptible to temporal mismatch if bees and flowering plants differ in their phenological responses to warming temperatures. While the cues that trigger flowering a

Understanding the influence of environmental variability on population dynamics is a fundamental goal of ecology. Theory suggests that, for populations in variable environments, temporal correlations between demographic vital rates (e.g., growth, survival, reproduction) can increase (if positive) or

Climate change has induced pronounced shifts in the reproductive phenology of plants, yet we know little about which environmental factors contribute to interspecific variation in responses and their effects on fitness. We integrate data from a 43-year record of first flowering for six species in su

While community-weighted means of plant traits have been linked to mean environmental conditions at large scales, the drivers of trait variation within communities are not well understood. Local environmental heterogeneity (such as microclimate variability), in addition to mean environmental conditi

Harsh abiotic conditions such as low temperatures that lead to spring and summer frost events in high-elevation and high-latitude ecosystems can have strong negative consequences for plant growth, survival, and reproduction. Despite the predicted increase in episodic frost events under continued cli

Intraspecific variation in flower color is often attributed to pollinator-mediated selection, yet this mechanism cannot explain flower color polymorphisms in self-pollinating species. Indirect selection mediated via biotic and abiotic stresses could maintain flower color variation in these systems.

Anthropogenic climate change has already altered the timing of major life history transitions, such as the initiation of reproduction. Both phenotypic plasticity and adaptive evolution can underlie rapid phenological shifts in response to climate change but their relative contributions are poorly un

Between-individual variation in phenotypes within a population is the basis of evolution. However, evolutionary and behavioural ecologists have mainly focused on estimating between-individual variance in mean trait and neglected variation in within-individual variance, or predictability of a trait.

Altered precipitation patterns associated with anthropogenic climate change are expected to have many effects on plants and insect pollinators, but it is unknown if effects on pollination are mediated by changes in water availability. We tested the hypothesis that impacts of climate on plant pollina

Many biotic interactions influence community structure, yet most distribution models for plants have focused on plant competition or used only abiotic variables to predict plant abundance. Furthermore, biotic interactions are commonly context-dependent across abiotic gradients. For example, plant-pl

The objective of this study is to understand how climate cues affect the abundance and phenology of aphids and the arthropods with which they interact. These data were collected in 20 populations of the host plant (Ligusticum porteri) along an elevation gradient near Gothic, CO, USA. We randomly-sel

Site 5GN2404, situated on a south-facing slope overlooking the Gunnison River Valley, was examined as part of work on the Blue Mesa-Skito Transmission Line. This large scatter of flaked lithic and ground stone artifacts also includes several thermal pits (Barb Lockwood, personal communication, Augus

The Chance Gulch site, 5GN817, is an 8000 year old camp located about 2.5 miles southeast of the town of Gunnison, Colorado. The site is situated within the sagebrush community, though pine and aspen trees are within view. Nine stratigraphic samples were analyzed to determine paleovegetation and pal